Ryan sophomore Tyreke Davis stepped in at running back and came up with a big performance in Ryan's 36-26 win over Wylie East on Thursday night at C.H. Collins Athletic Complex. (Special Contributor/Matt Garnett)

Any time the topic of youth was brought up to Ryan head coach Dave Henigan, his responses were pretty much uniform.

Each time the first-year Ryan head coach said that yes, the Raiders were young, but they would be fine. Well, I have a feeling he was on to something.

Ryan closed out the nondistrict portion of the schedule with a 36-26 win against Wylie East on homecoming night. While Ryan enjoys a Friday night off, here are the three things that stand out the most from Thursday night’s victory.

Dave Henigan picked up his first win as Ryan’s head coach last week against Hebron. In this week’s video interview (which we probably should have called Coach’s Corner or something like that), he talks about nondistrict play and tonight’s matchup against Wylie East. If that’s not enticing enough, there’s also a couple highlights from the win over Hebron.

Wylie East got the best of Ryan in the 2012 matchup between the two teams. But Ryan won last year's game, 37-10, evening the series between the two schools that continues tonight. (DRC file photo)

It doesn’t feel like it the season is already two weeks old. The first scrimmage feels like it happened last week, yet we’re hours away from Week Three of the high school football season.

Well, to be honest, every season always feels like it’s going by too quickly.

And after tonight, the nondistrict portion of Ryan’s schedule will be gone along with the first 30 percent of the season.

Ryan closes out nondistrict play at home with a Thursday night contest against Wylie East. For those of you who have were anticipating this blog to drop on Wednesday night, my apologies for not getting it out there sooner. I’d like to blame the short week, but this is the wrong business to be in if you want to make excuses.

All right. No more waiting. Here’s what you need to know about the Wylie East Raiders.

Ryan was in jeopardy of doing something it hadn’t done in seven seasons.

If the Raiders couldn’t find a way to beat Hebron on Friday night, Ryan was looking at the first 0-2 start to the season since 2007.

But the Raiders recovered from last week’s season-opening loss to Rockwall to pick up a 27-21 win against Hebron at Hawk Stadium on Friday night. Not only did the Raiders avoid dropping back-to-back games to open the season, but Dave Henigan picked up his first victory as Ryan’s head coach.

In the final minutes of the contest, it seemed as if the first victory of the season was going to slip out of Ryan’s grasp. But the Raiders survived at the place known as The Woodshed (which is awesome) and handed Hebron its second loss of the season in as many games.

Treyvon Hughes (left) and Carson Proffitt may have graduated from Hebron, but the Hawks still carry a strong team into Friday night's nondistrict game against Ryan. (Special contributor to The Dallas Morning News/Matt Strasen)

For the past two years, Ryan-Hebron has been a district matchup. Hebron got the best of the Raiders the last two years, but both suffered the same playoff fate.

The University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment took the teams out of the district, but that didn’t stop Hebron head coach Brian Brazil and Denton ISD athletic director Joey Florence from scheduling the fixture during nondistrict play.